ReadingIQ

Building on the success of ABCmouse.com® Early Learning Academy, we are bringing the same research-based, educator-led approach to the ReadingIQ digital library. ReadingIQ provides the best of children’s literature, including Caldecott and Newbery award winners, National Geographic and National Geographic Kids books, the complete Boxcar Children series, Curious George, more than 1,000 exclusive titles, and thousands of additional high-quality fiction and nonfiction books from leading publishers.

The entire ReadingIQ library is easily searchable by topic and leveled with both the Guided Reading and Lexile® systems so that children can find titles that match their interests and reading ability. ReadingIQ also includes more than 1,000 professionally voiced titles to support engagement and comprehension for pre-readers and developing readers.

As with ABCmouse, ReadingIQ is available at no cost to teachers for use in their classrooms, with the ability to assign an entire reading level of books to each student to read at home, completely free. Families who would like full home access to all of the ReadingIQ library can subscribe for less than $5 a month or $30 a year. ReadingIQ is available at www.ReadingIQ.com, or can be downloaded to smartphones and tablets through the Apple App Store or Google Play.

According to recent nationwide surveys of more than 1,000 preschool and elementary teachers and 1,000 parents of children 12 and under, sponsored by Age of Learning, lack of access to books is a major challenge for children’s reading development. More than 8,000 elementary schools in the U.S. – 10% of schools – do not have a school library. Yet teachers report that students with access to both physical and digital libraries are significantly more likely to be reading above grade level than peers without such access.

Seven out of 10 teachers report that students would benefit greatly from more parental involvement in reading outside of school, but only one third of parents know their child’s reading level. Moreover, 85% of teachers expect students to read between 15 minutes and one hour per day outside of school, but most students are reading less than the 15-minute daily minimum, and millions are not reading at all. To view our Reading Study, visit www.AgeofLearning.com/readingstudy.

ReadingIQ was created to address these challenges by expanding access to high-quality, high-interest books; strengthening the school-home connection around reading; and encouraging consistent at-home reading. In addition to making entire reading levels of books available for students to read at home for free, ReadingIQ enables teachers to set daily reading challenges, parents to create profiles for up to three children, and parents and teachers to track students’ reading progress.

“When kids master reading in elementary school, it sets them on a path to success for the rest of their lives, but only one third of fourth graders are proficient readers,” said Dr. Rebecca Palacios, member of Age of Learning’s Curriculum Board and the National Teachers Hall of Fame. “ReadingIQ is a game-changer for parents and teachers, giving all children a greater opportunity to become fluent and engaged readers.”

The post Introducing ReadingIQ, an Expert-Curated Digital Library  first appeared on Age of Learning.

According to the Nation’s Report Card, more than 6 out of 10 U.S. 4th graders are not reading at grade level. For low-income students at high-poverty schools, that number is worse: 8 in 10 are not proficient.

To understand some of the causes of this reading gap and identify solutions to help close it, Age of Learning recently conducted nationwide surveys of more than 1,000 parents and 1,000 teachers of children ages 2 to 12. Participants reported on children’s access to books and reading habits, and described what they see as the major obstacles to developing confident and successful readers. The data reveals three important factors contributing to the reading gap.

Read the full study to learn about these findings…

The post National Children’s Reading Habits Study: Understanding the Reading Gap and How to Help Close It first appeared on Age of Learning.

Children from low-income families begin to fall behind their peers in vocabulary development before they’re even two years old. By the time they reach fourth grade, 80 percent of these children are not proficient readers (Source: Campaign for Grade-Level Reading). This learning deficit has long-term effects on children’s academic future, including their likelihood of graduating from high school.

To help address this challenge, Age of Learning has developed a set of Education Access Initiatives to make our educational programs available for free to children whose families may not be able to afford a subscription. Our Education Access Initiatives have helped educate more than 6 million children and counting across all 50 states, at no cost to families, teachers, or libraries. And the cumulative value of our in-kind contributions exceeds $100 million to date.

ABCmouse for Teachers

In 2011, shortly after we launched ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy, we developed a fully-featured version for teachers to use in their classrooms at no cost. Since then, ABCmouse for Teachers has grown every year and served several million students in preschools, Head Start centers, and elementary schools across the country. More than 140,000 teachers, including approximately 1 in 4 kindergarten teachers, used ABCmouse in their classrooms during the last school year.

ABCmouse for Libraries

Recognizing the critical role of libraries in serving at-risk children, we created ABCmouse for Libraries in 2014 to make ABCmouse available for free in public libraries. Librarians have embraced this program, which families can now access in more than 7,800 public libraries—close to 50% of all library branches in the U.S.—including more than 70% of the 200 largest library systems. Over the past year, children have completed more than one million ABCmouse learning sessions in public libraries.

ABCmouse for Community Centers

In 2015, we launched ABCmouse for Community Centers to provide free ABCmouse access in afterschool programs, computer centers in public housing facilities, and other community centers that want to offer educationally enriching experiences for children with limited resources. We have partnered with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and ConnectHomeUSA to serve families living in public housing in more than 70 communities. Today, ABCmouse is available in hundreds of community centers and public housing authorities across 43 states.

Says Age of Learning CEO Doug Dohring, “we couldn’t be more excited about continuing to scale this work going forward!”

The post Expanding Opportunity Through Our Education Access Initiatives first appeared on Age of Learning.

The Bring Learning to All Initiative is expanding its reach in the San Francisco Bay Area, providing families throughout the Bay Area with free home access to ABCmouse Early Learning Academy via public libraries. Local families can now “check out” ABCmouse accounts for four weeks at a time from the San José Public Library, San Mateo County Libraries, Contra Costa County Library, and 13 other library systems.

Bring Learning to All is a Tides Foundation initiative that works to help close the access and achievement gaps in education by providing research-validated digital education resources to young learners, with a focus on low-income families.

Through Bring Learning to All, libraries are providing families free at-home access to the research-validated ABCmouse curriculum, including more than 10,000 ABCmouse Learning Activities (hundreds available in Spanish), several standalone mobile apps that can be used without internet connectivity, and digital assessments. The program is designed to increase school readiness and reading proficiency and can be accessed by up to three children per family. Libraries also receive physical books for each branch, training for librarians on the use of digital early education resources, and support for family outreach and education.

“The Bring Learning to All initiative is a huge benefit for our families. Providing the tools parents need to help their child succeed in school is one of our priorities,” said Jill Bourne, City Librarian for the San José Public Library. “Now families will have the opportunity to be more proactive in their child’s education by having access to this program from the comfort of their own home.”

According to The Nation’s Report Card, two out of every three children in the U.S. are not proficient in reading by the time they reach fourth grade. Bring Learning to All seeks to change that by partnering with libraries that play a critical role in serving at-risk children and by providing effective educational resources that build on classroom instruction at home.

So far, thousands of children in the Bay Area have accessed ABCmouse through Bring Learning to All, completing hundreds of thousands of ABCmouse Learning Activities, averaging 15 Learning Activities per week. Assessment data shows that children using ABCmouse through this program are averaging 20% growth in literacy and math skills after one month. Importantly, research shows that similar levels of ABCmouse usage help prevent a “summer slide” in reading and significantly increase academic growth in literacy and math.

As part of the Bring Learning to All expansion, three high-need library locations are providing tablets with mobile broadband for patrons to check out with ABCmouse accounts. “I love the format of ABCmouse! The kids really enjoy working on their lessons and the credits they earn!” said one Bay Area library patron. “My 7-year-old grandchild has become an excellent reader!”

To learn more about Bring Learning to All, including how to become a partner, please email Contact@BringLearningtoAll.org.

The post Bring Learning to All Initiative Expands in the Bay Area, Increasing Access to Early Education for Low-Income Bay Area Families Through Public Libraries first appeared on Age of Learning.

Research shows that the summer slide has a significant, cumulative impact on academic achievement, particularly for children in low-income households. The summer slide is a key factor behind a stunning statistic: by the end of 5th grade, disadvantaged children are, on average, nearly three grade levels behind their more affluent peers in reading (source: The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading). And, according to the National Summer Learning Association, summer learning loss accounts for two-thirds of the achievement gap in reading between children from low- and middle-income households by 9th grade.

But there is hope. While the school year will start before we know it, there’s still time for children to reinforce what they learned the previous year and prepare for the next one. Engaging and effective learning experiences can help prevent the summer slide by getting children excited to continue learning over their summer break.

Below are some helpful tips that families can use to maintain academic achievement over the summer from National Teachers’ Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Rebecca Palacios, Senior Curriculum Advisor at Age of Learning.

Visit Your Local Public Library

Visiting the library can help develop a love of reading and learning at an early age. In addition to thousands of books, libraries offer technology access, research areas, and fun learning activities.

More than 8,000 public libraries nationwide make ABCmouse.com available for families to use on site at no cost. Families get full access to the more than 10,000 ABCmouse Learning Activities, including books, songs, puzzles, and games that encompass key academic subjects. Patrons in some areas, including the San Francisco Bay Area and Detroit can also check out ABCmouse accounts from their local library to use at home through the Bring Learning to All initiative.

Read, Read, Read!

A 2004 American Academy of Arts and Sciences study concluded that children should read at least 4 to 5 books over the summer break to prevent summer  learning loss. Research shows that books that are “just right”for children–those that aren’t frustratingly hard or too easy–make the best learning experiences.

Regular reading matters: Choose a fun and engaging weekly book that you can read aloud as a family. Read a chapter each night, if it’s a longer book. Here are a few tips for making these reading sessions even more interactive and engaging:

1. Talk to your child about words in the book that rhyme or begin with the same letter.
2. Ask your child questions about what is happening in the story as you’re reading.
3. Discuss the book’s characters: their names, appearance, feelings, and actions.

With thousands of books to choose from, ABCmouse provides rich reading experiences for children in preschool through 2nd grade at their listening-comprehension or independent reading level.

Be Prepared for On-the-Go Learning 

Whether you’re on a plane, at the park, or in a store, every outing can be a learning opportunity! Ask questions and show kids different colors, shapes, words, and numbers in the world around them.

Listening and singing along to music is also a wonderful way for children to learn about the world around them and build a rich vocabulary. You can now access 175 ABCmouse children’s songs, including a special summer playlist that teaches the alphabet, numbers and operations, shapes, colors, and geography, on major streaming platforms such as Spotify, Google Play, and Pandora. Children can sing along to “The Letter S Song, “The Statue of Liberty,” “Five Little Monkeys,” and more.

Families can also download seven ABCmouse apps that offer ABCmouse content for offline use, making ABCmouse even easier for families to access—no matter where they go.

A recent research study showed that students who regularly used ABCmouse for at least 70 minutes per week over the summer demonstrated literacy gains equivalent to one month of academic instruction! These gains were sustained well into the following school year. Invest in summer learning today and reap benefits for your children this fall, and in all school years ahead.

The post Closing the Achievement Gap: Tips for Preventing Summer Learning Loss first appeared on Age of Learning.

To date, children have completed more than 2 million ABCmouse learning sessions in public libraries, and usage continues to grow. ABCmouse is available in large and small library systems in virtually every state and more than 70% of the largest 200 library systems, including all branches of the Los Angeles Public Library, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, and Houston Public Library. For a firsthand look at the impact ABCmouse is having in libraries, watch this brief video.

We launched ABCmouse for Libraries because of the critical role libraries play in serving at-risk children. Families living in poverty are more likely to visit a library than any other community cultural or educational institution, such as a bookstore, theater, or museum (Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education 2016). Since launching, we’ve continued to expand and strengthen ABCmouse for Libraries, adding a comprehensive curriculum for 1st and 2nd grade, Spanish-language Learning Activities, tablet compatibility, and more.

Earlier this year, in response to demand from librarians to enable their patrons to “check out” ABCmouse accounts, we launched the Bring Learning to All initiative. This initiative makes ABCmouse available for families to check out from their library and use at home for 4 to 6 weeks at a time. Families gain access to all 9,000+ ABCmouse Learning Activities, the ABCmouse Assessment Center, and a growing set of ABCmouse mobile apps that do not require Internet connectivity. Supplemental technology kits that include tablets with mobile broadband can also be provided to libraries for checkout.

Currently available in select libraries in California, Florida, and New York, this initiative brings together public libraries, funders, and in-kind contributions from Age of Learning to make ABCmouse available to families who may not otherwise be able to afford such resources at home.  Thanks to the generous support of partner sponsors including Southern California Edison, the California Community Foundation, PNC Bank, and others, we are making this program available to more and more families.

We look forward to continued collaboration with library partners to help children in all communities build a strong foundation for future academic success.

Libraries interested in offering ABCmouse at no cost to patrons can sign up for a free account here. Libraries and funders interested in participating in Bring Learning to All can email BringLearningtoAll@AofL.com for more information.

The post ABCmouse Now Available in 7,000+ Libraries Nationwide, Serving Millions of Learning Sessions first appeared on Age of Learning.

ABCmouse.com for Libraries gives children free access through all of the 16,000 U.S. public libraries to the leading and most comprehensive online learning resource for children ages 2 through 6+. Since the American Library Association reports that there are more than 300 million sessions annually on Internet-connected computers at U.S. public libraries, this initiative will significantly increase families’ ability to access and use this valuable curriculum resource.

 This is the latest in a series of Age of Learning’s Education Access Initiatives, including ABCmouse.com for Schools and ABCmouse.com for Head Start, which make this high-quality early learning resource available at no cost to children regardless of their families’ circumstances.

Winner of numerous awards from national education, parent, and media organizations, ABCmouse.com offers a highly engaging, expert-designed curriculum for preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, and beyond. With more than 3,500 individual learning activities and 450 lessons, ABCmouse.com for Libraries encompasses reading and language arts, math, science, social studies, art, and music, to help children build a strong foundation for academic success.

 “Age of Learning is committed to helping every child learn, and our latest Education Access Initiative—ABCmouse.com for Libraries—is a major step in that effort,” said Zachary Katz, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Age of Learning. “For the millions of families without a computer or broadband Internet at home, the local public library may be the only place they can access online learning resources like ABCmouse.com.”

Already available to more than 140 library branches around the country in its pilot phase, including all Los Angeles Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library branches, ABCmouse.com for Libraries makes it quick and easy for any public library to create a free account. Once a library account is created, anyone who visits www.ABCmouse.com from the library can access the ABCmouse.com online curriculum.

ABCmouse.com for Libraries offers a safe, Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)-compliant, 100 percent educational environment for children, with no advertising or links to external websites. Parents also can create a personal account at the library to enable their children to customize their experiences and save their progress on the ABCmouse.com Step-by-Step Learning Path.

ABCmouse.com for Libraries is available to all U.S. public libraries free of charge at www.ABCmouse.com/libraries.

Read more about ABCmouse.com for Libraries on the School Library Journal website.

The post Age of Learning Makes ABCmouse.com Free for Libraries first appeared on Age of Learning.